


Fifteen Years

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Gen, Seriously so many spoilers please don't read this if you haven't beaten the game and Torna, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-05 17:06:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16814854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Fifteen years after Torna fell, something or someone decided that things had gone too wrong to leave time to progress on its own.Fifteen years after Torna fell, a boy called Rex awakens the blade his father entrusted to him, and his journey to take her to Elysium...doesn't end up as planned.Fifteen years after Torna fell, Mikhail wakes up in a strange place, in a situation no one can understand, with people he never expected to see and plenty of people he never, ever wanted to see again.





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I'm not entirely sure what this is but bear with me. Also rip me writing regularly for this fandom I'm so sorry folks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The meaning of light can only be found in the deepest of darkness.

He was somewhere very dark and cold, and he didn’t understand what was going on. Then again, what was new, really? This happened all the time at this point. A regular occurence. Of course it was the same thing as before, because it always was, but that didn’t mean his brain could make sense of it. He always wished, fruitlessly, that his time would be his own. He may have been trapped on Indol, but Indol kept on pulling him back into the Sanctum and taking any semblance of normality away once more.

He was sick of it, and that’s why, when he came to, he started cursing profusely at the person who was shaking him awake. What did they want this time? Blood tests? Ether level tests? To plug him with something else in an attempt to stabilise something they said was faulty even though he told them time and again that it wasn’t, that’s just how blades without drivers work.

The person with the voice who his eyes couldn’t focus on yet said something in a language he didn’t understand, and that just put him on edge. Had they drugged him up and washed their hands of him, handing him over to the Urayans to try and work out how to create a super soldier or something? He didn’t see why they’d do that, but it wasn’t exactly outside the realms of possibility.

Someone else came to stand next to the first person. He could see a hint of red here, and he watched cautiously as they spoke to each other. As he focused, his eyes still blurry, he could hear that one was a man and the other a woman. Okay, not unusual and not helpful, either. The accent was one he recognised in the woman, definitely the voice of a blade, where the male voice was an accent he recognised from hearing it on the docks but he couldn’t identify it.

The woman was talking to him now, he could tell from the change of tone. She was a blade, which meant that as long as she wasn’t newly awakened, she’d probably manage to hit on the right language soon enough. “Do you understand me?” She asked, this time in Indoline, and that was the one he recognised. He nodded, and opened his mouth to speak, but he was still too drained and the words didn’t come. “Okay, good,” she said, and spoke some words to the man next to her, who returned some words in an enthusiastic tone that belied his voice as one of a boy’s.

“He says being from Indol must be cool,” she said, and Mikhail clearly didn’t have the level of mental capacity to snort right now, but that’s how he felt. He just tried to make the ugliest face possible instead and hope that, at some point, his body and brain would actually start working together.

The two talked some more in the language he didn’t understand and still couldn’t find the word to put his finger to, but it was fine. His body was eventually starting to work and soon he’d be able to hold a proper conversation and work out what was going on. Whatever it was, it clearly wasn’t the controlled lab environment that usually came from this kind of waking up situation. He didn’t understand, but he would be willing to bet that at some point he’d hopefully be able to get the fuck out.

Slowly but surely, his vision returned, and he was able to see what was going on. And that was when he realised why the voice he’d heard, the map of the accent from the woman, was so familiar. It was her.

-

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice low, her eyes not meeting his. They weren’t speaking Indoline then, no. They’d been speaking Tornan. And it was between disasters. Between death and rebirth and- it wasn’t a good time to remember someone from.

He hadn’t said anything in return to her at the time. He’d just glared at her, blaming her for the thing she was apologising for and decidedly not accepting the apology. Because an apology wasn’t good enough.

“Mikhail-” He’d glared at her more pointedly, and then looked away. “I know it didn’t...didn’t turn out well at all. And that it hurt you more than you want to say. More than you can say. And I understand why you don’t want to talk to me but…” She’d said some more things. He hadn’t been listening. And then she’d parted ways with him. And then they’d been moving forward. He’d tried to move on.

It had all gone even worse from there.

-

“Pyra,” he said, knowing that she’d called herself that. He’d tried to ignore when they’d all been talking with her. It had been hard to think about her, alive but in a new body, when there were so many people who didn’t get that opportunity, partially because of her.

“You-” she cut herself off. Maybe she’d realised who he was. What she’d done. “You know me?”

“Couldn’t really forget,” he said with a sharp sigh. Pyra turned to the boy who was standing next to her. He was startlingly familiar, and Mikhail knew who he must have been almost immediately. Because of course, he could go on to have a life elsewhere too. Abandoning everyone else to a lonely fate.

The boy said something. “He’s asking how you know me,” Pyra said.

“Any guesses?” He asked, turning to the boy and speaking in Tornan. The boy’s eyes widened in recognition. That would make the unfamiliar accent and language Leftherian, then.

“Were you- were you there?” She asked. “On the ship…?”

Mikhail clenched his teeth. He knew that he shouldn’t get too emotional about this. He should be over this; it had been fifteen years now, for the Architect’s sake! He shouldn’t be feeling teary and angry over what happened in the past, but he did. He still did, because it still hurt. “On the ship,” he repeated. “In the city. In the desert, in Aletta, in Gormott, in Lasaria.”

“Mikhail,” she said, her voice shaking. She looked just about as upset as he felt, and he tried not to feel too pleased about that but he definitely was. And maybe that made him a bit of a bad person but he didn’t care. The boy next to her who still hadn’t introduced himself looked at him, a question in his eyes.

“The one and only,” he said.

“You’ve changed,” she said.

“He’s a blade,” the boy next to her said, and Mikhail shot him a look. He’d never been called a blade before. An abomination, yes. A blade eater, yes. But never a blade. Because he’d always hidden it in Indol just in case someone caught on.

“Mikhail never was,” she said, looking at him with ever more questions. Ever more sadness. “I know that things happened, after I left, Rex got me up to speed, but we still didn’t have the full story.”

“I don’t think you need the full story,” he said. The new doctors always wanted to hear it, each time someone new drugged him up to try and find the solution to a problem Mikhail knew didn’t exist. They always wanted to hear it from him. The medical records weren’t enough, apparently.

“I need part of the story,” she said. She glanced over to a part of the room which Mikhail couldn’t see from his current angle. Slowly, he pushed himself up, his hands planted firmly on either side to steady himself. He was definitely still a bit woozy, but whoever had drugged him with something hadn’t given him quite the right amount to keep him inactive for long enough that he wasn’t about to immediately work on getting out of here.

“Indol came after the remaining Tornans,” he said, and he followed her gaze as he spoke. And then he froze. “Yeah. Not everyone made it out. Because there was no one to protect us. Anyone who didn’t die, well, they ended up in Indol.”

“Are you saying that Haze-”

“Yeah,” Mikhail said. “Yeah, I am. I don’t know why she’s still under, but...she’ll be up soon. She won’t know you.”

Pyra let out a choked sob, and the boy next to her immediately put an arm around her shoulders. He said something, switching back to the Leftherian which was clearly more natural for him than anything else. Was he really Addam’s child? He sure as hell looked like it.

“So where are we?” He asked, ignoring her tears. He’d had fifteen years for those at this point and he didn’t need any more right now. “Any idea how you ended up here? Indol drugging me is nothing unusual if I’m going to be honest, and it’s pretty normal that I don’t remember what happened before.”

The boy glared at him and went back to talking quietly to Pyra. Mikhail shrugged and decided to take his own initiative, if no one else was going to help. He looked around the room; metal, rectangular, with four beds laid out in a row. He was on the one on the far right hand side of the room, while Haze was on the one on the far left. So it was metal, which didn’t say much, because while Indol had the image of marble and Uraya had the image of stone, he’d seen the metal underbelly of Indol. So they couldn’t rule anything out, but right now Mor Ardain was technically most likely.

The presence of Haze definitely said something. This wasn’t an activity performed by the Indoline. They never touched Haze. They let her do her own thing, presumably while they worked on the blade eater technology. And maybe with raising someone to hold that core so they could use them in the way they’d never really been able to use him. So, while it could be Indol, it wasn’t the people who lived and worked in the Sanctum. Though it was someone with access to that.

Then there was the boy, and Pyra. They were another mystery. They’d presumably been in Leftheria, but he didn’t know if they had technology like this. Architect, all of this just didn't make any sense. Why would anyone do this? Why would they put them together like this? The only thing that they had in common was the past, and Haze had forgotten that. Rex (presumably that was the boy's name, Pyra had mentioned it once anyway) wasn't even part of it, he was just the legacy of it.

“Haze is waking up!” The boy called over to him, apparently not willing to entirely shut him out despite his clear misgivings about how he was making Pyra feel. As much as he wanted to appear indifferent to all of this, Mikhail knew that he didn’t feel that way and he’d already broken his facade with all of that by getting upset by Pyra’s mere presence.

He rushed over to Haze’s side, knowing that hopefully she’d recognise him. She saw him every so often, after all, and it had been her who’d helped him deal with all the problems he was having with being a blade. By restricting his new powers, she’d been able to help him figure out how they worked, and while that had hurt more than anything in one way, he still cherished the new connection they’d made.

She opened her eyes, and the moment she had done that, she was already sitting up, tensed up in a way that Mikhail hadn’t seen in her for quite a while. The life of someone beloved of the Praetorium was quite a relaxed one, but it seemed that hadn’t dulled her combatative instincts at all. Mik was...glad, he supposed.

“Morning, Haze,” he said, attempting a smile. She turned to face him immediately, her eyes widening with surprise.

“Mikhail?” She asked. “Why are you here? And where are we?” Well, she wasn’t wasting any time in trying to get things moving, then. What he wouldn’t give to be more like a blade and actually be able to wake up without feeling woozy.

“No idea,” he said. “Haven’t tried the door yet, but it’s over there.” He nodded to where there was a panel behind her, which had a handle. He hadn’t had the time to inspect it and he hadn’t really wanted to split up from the group when half of them weren’t talking to him. That was a surefire way to get killed if there was something up about this place, which he was willing to bet there would be.

“And who are you?” She asked, immediately turning to Pyra and Rex. Pyra bit her lip and said nothing, but Mikhail could see the pain in her face. It wasn’t good, exactly...but he was glad that she was seeing the consequences of her actions. If she’d used the power that Mythra had when Indol were attacking them…

No. No point in what ifs now. This had to be about now, and what was happening right now, and what in Alrest was going on, and what they could do about it to move on from here. If they were outside of Indol, as Mikhail suspected they were, then, well, he had a much longer future to think about that he really needed to get sorted as soon as possible so he could move on to having a good life, free of all those experiments.

“I’m Rex, and this is my blade and partner Pyra,” the boy said, stepping forwards to shake hands with her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, miss. I think Mikhail said your name was Haze?”

“That’s right,” she said, tentatively shaking hands with him. Wow, Mikhail certainly hadn’t attracted the same kind of respect from the boy. But he supposed he was just a lowlife from Indol who made Pyra upset, and Haze was a pretty lady whose blade status actually made sense. “It’s good to meet you. Now, let’s get moving.”

This was the Haze that Mikhail remembered and loved. She’d been gone for so long, buried under the fog of tradition and boundaries in the Praetorium, but it seemed like the moment she stepped out of their influence and into the kind of situation where blades were meant to thrive, she was suddenly a different person. It was refreshing and amazing and it gave Mikhail hope that maybe she wouldn’t go back, once all of this current mess was over.

No, that was the wrong kind of future to get thinking about and he should definitely start focusing on the present. Just like Haze had suggested. He headed over to the door, and to his surprise, it opened without even much of an effort. He pulled the handle and the door opened, just like that. So they were meant to wake up and get out of here. Interesting. And worrying.

“The ether flow is strange through here,” Haze said, the moment she stepped out into the corridor. “Not disrupted; aided. Something is amplifying it and directing it towards somewhere.”

“Should we follow it?” Rex asked, his brow furrowed in thought. Mikhail was just as puzzled right now, for sure, but the sight was still comical. Kid was trying so hard.

“Perhaps,” Haze said. “Or perhaps…” She glanced over at Pyra. “What do you think? Your interaction with ether is somehow different too. Do you have any ideas?”

Pyra shook her head. “It’s something taking in ether, for sure,” she said. “But I have no idea as to what that could be. I’ve only felt that kind of sensation once before, and…” She shook her head. “It’s just not possible for that to happen again.”

“What was it?” Mikhail asked. He’d travelled alongside Mythra for a while. He’d probably seen the things she’d seen, felt the things she’d felt, but he’d also been awake and all in the intervening period between that and now. Maybe he’d know if it really was impossible.

Pyra shook her head. “It honestly just isn’t possible. I can’t think of any situation in which it’s what I think it is, so just saying it would make people worry, and I don’t want to do that.”

“Is it an Artifice?” He asked. Pyra frantically shook her head, and Mikhail got the message. Oh. Worse than just an Artifice, then. Worse than a murderous robot, which just meant...yeah, even if she was right, he wasn’t going to say that. He nodded, and attempted to maybe shoot her an encouraging look. He didn’t know if it worked, but she looked away again and glanced anxiously down the corridor.

“I think we should check it out,” she said, but the shake in her voice was clear. Rex shot her a concerned look, and she just smiled at him weakly. He opened his mouth to object, and then just shook his head.

“If you think that’s a good idea,” he said. “Just let me know if I need to be ready to fight anything. I can do it, Pyra, I promise.” Ah, the words of a novice if Mikhail had ever heard them. He’d make fun of Rex for it, but his own opportunities for teaching himself how to fight were few and far between considering the relative peace of where he lived and the constant fear of being discovered by normal people who might be less than friendly about the issue.

“That shouldn’t be necessary,” Haze said, and with a wave of her hand, her staff materialised. Of course. That should work, even if it was what Pyra was concerned it was. “If it does happen to be anything dangerous, I can restrict the flow of ether while we work it out.”

Mikhail stayed silent as they walked down the corridor. If he was being honest, he was nervous. The prospect of facing...that...just had him terrified. As previously established, he was not over the old feelings he should have been over by now, which meant he might have to face up to those while also in a less than savoury position in terms of how secure they were.

When they got close to the source of where the ether was flowing, there was another door. Another door, but this one didn’t have a handle on the outside. So they’d have to get whoever was on the other side to open it. And if it was the person Pyra thought it was...well, she definitely couldn’t stand on the other side of the door when it was opened. Neither could Haze. Rex would probably get stabbed on the spot because of how puny and whiny he was. Which left…

“I’ll call in,” he said. Pyra looked at him, a strange expression on her face.

“You can’t, it’s not-” It’s not safe. You can’t go to dangerous places, Mikhail, because someone might get hurt. And Mythra had promised that she’d protect them if they stayed somewhere safe.

Yeah, fuck that. “Pyra, I have suffered through hell since you waltzed off to Leftheria,” he said. Pyra stepped back. “Hell I am unwilling to describe. You’d probably find that Haze won’t describe what happened either, and she has a pretty good idea of what went down. At least, she has a good idea of what happened after Amalthus stole her core from Lora’s corpse.”

Okay, maybe that had been a bit harsh. But he couldn’t apologise. Because he’d just pissed both Pyra and Rex off and probably upset Haze too. “Open up!” He called, banging on the door. “We don’t know who’s in there, we’re here to find out!” Maybe not the most tactical or the safest way to do this, but...hey, he had to get it done.


	2. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The door opens, and Mikhail sees two people he was really not expecting.

The door opened to someone he’d never, ever wanted to see again in his life. He’d caught only the barest of glimpses fifteen years ago, but now, seeing Malos up close was...still utterly terrifying. Architect, he was afraid. Really, desperately afraid of this man. Not helped by the parts of his appearance that just didn’t match up. That was just...Mikhail forced himself to avert his eyes from the huge crack in the Aegis’ core crystal.

Pyra gasped and stepped back, and out of the corner of his eye, Mikhail saw Rex step in front of her. Malos’ eyes immediately whipped towards her. “Huh,” he said. “So something’s changed here. A different upstart, a different form, you, and whatever monster of a creation you are. I’m busy, so either piss off or come and lend a hand.”

He stepped backwards, not taking his eyes off Mikhail, which was probably a good idea, seeing as Mik was incredibly tempted right now to just stab Malos right in the back without hesitation. And as Malos moved, his body shifted and unblocked the things behind him that he’d been hiding. That was...Jin. Lying on a bed just like the ones that had been in the room the four of them had woken up in. And…

Okay, Mikhail couldn’t help it. He gagged. It wasn’t a gruesome sight. In fact, she didn’t look...harmed at all. But that was- and she was- and Haze had been- this was too much. Far too much, right now.

“Is that Malos?” Rex whispered to Pyra. Pyra nodded, looking numb, and Haze gasped. Because of course she didn’t know what Malos looked like, not anymore, and she didn’t know the extent of what he’d done, but you couldn’t avoid talk of Malos in Indol, not ever. All the refugees that Haze spent half her life helping were refugees of Malos’ attacks. Mikhail included, he supposed. He wondered if that was how he was registered, on Indol’s records. A refugee they couldn't get rid of.

“Oh, get over yourselves,” Malos drawled, turning back to Jin, lying on the bed. Jin looked...different. There was a cloak lying pulled around his chest, but the coat and armour Mikhail had spent so many hours trailing behind were gone, replaced with...wings? It looked like black armour, but it didn’t make any sense for that to jut out. But if they were wings, they were so far down.

“Is he okay?” Pyra asked, rushing over to Jin’s side. Her eyes were very clearly avoiding the block of ice just beyond Jin’s unconscious form.

“Should be,” Malos said. “He had some kind of ether deficiency when I woke up. I was reversing it before you lot interrupted, so let me get on with it and then we can work out who needs to throw the first punch.”

Mikhail felt so torn. Initially, he couldn’t pull his eyes away from Malos, and Jin, because he didn’t trust Malos anywhere near Jin’s unconscious body, anywhere near Pyra, anywhere near anyone. He didn’t know what was going on, why Jin looked like that (had he always looked like that and he was just hiding it, or did it have something to do with the way Lora looked?), why Malos was helping Jin. It was all so confusing.

And then Haze decided to add to it. Because of course there’s data in a core, of course things linger. Or maybe Mikhail had told Haze about Lora once, about how they looked the same. He didn’t remember because a lot of the time he’d spent with Haze was blurred with pain and fever and all kinds of awful things he never, ever wanted to think about again.

But Haze stumbled over to the figure of Lora like she recognised her. Maybe she recognised that there was someone there who looked like herself in the mirror, but she was frozen and dead she was definitely dead because Haze had returned to her core right in front of his eyes but Jin was still here. Why was Jin still here and Haze was not but also Lora was? What had happened?

Mikhail just didn’t understand. He didn’t understand and this was bringing back too many things for him to deal with right now. “I know you, don’t I?” Malos asked, looking at Mikhail, because of course he just had to add to it. And then Haze decided to add to the situation herself. She hit Malos in the back of his head with her staff, and Malos jumped a mile, but there was no explosion. No immediate retaliation. Just… “Ow, fuck!” Malos shouted, and everyone’s eyes shot immediately to Rex.

“Yes, you do know him,” Haze said, and Architect had Mikhail missed the Haze who, even though she acted like a bit of a wet blanket sometimes, had a real fierceness, a real fighting spirit inside her. And that in itself raised all kinds of questions about why Haze had been acting the sad way for so long now. “You ruined his life, so keep your smart comments where they belong.”

“Oh, terribly sorry,” Malos said, his voice absolutely dripping with sarcasm as he turned to him. “What was it, were you an itsy bitsy runt on Torna who lost his mummy and daddy?”

“That is uncalled for,” Pyra said, speaking up for the first time. And damn, this was not the kind of situation Mikhail wanted to be in. Everyone sticking up for him except his own damn self. Why was he so useless? “You know full well that you ruined many people in that war. Including yourself. So why are you here? Why is Jin here?”

Malos shrugged. “I’ll be damned if I know why I’m here as in this place that none of us know what it is,” he said. “But if you mean here in the general sense? Well, I’ll be damned if I know again.”

“And Jin?” Haze asked. Pyra and Haze made a fearsome team and considering all his misgivings about what was going on, Mikhail probably shouldn’t be thinking about that, but he was. Because this was weird and any rational thought had long gone out of the window at this point.

“Last I remember, we were heading out of Gormott,” he said. “And I don’t remember falling asleep or even making camp for the night, but now we’re here, so I’m dealing with this as it comes. So let me fucking deal with it without the interrogation.”

“You don’t have to be so crude,” Rex said, also contributing for the first time. He looked properly terrified, but Mikhail imagined that he looked about the same. He could not shake his fear of Malos for the life of him, even though it was incredibly obvious to him that Malos had just been attacked and not attacked back which told him a lot about the Aegis’ current capacity to fight.

“I can be as crude as I damn well want to be,” he said. “Or are your kid ears too sensitive for adult words?”

“You sure have a big mouth for someone who can’t fight,” Rex said, and Mikhail wanted to tell him to stop but somehow he didn’t think that would help this situation. Did he even understand how terrifying Malos was, how awful it would be if he attacked them right now? He clearly didn’t. And Rex would probably be the first one to die, before Malos went on to destroy everything else too.

“And you have a big mouth for someone who hasn’t hit puberty,” Malos said, but it looked like his attention was firmly on Jin now. He was holding his hands out in front of him and Mikhail could feel the ether flowing through. It was a lot of ether. Surely Jin didn’t need all that.

“What happened to him?” Pyra asked, going closer to Jin. Malos glared at her with what was definitely a warning look. What was going on here? Why were Jin and Malos seemingly on the same side?

“He never lets me look at him,” Malos said. “He’s severely lacking in ether right now. So I’m building up his reserves so he doesn’t need any extra for a while and so this doesn’t happen again. He’ll probably wake up soon.”

“Never…?” Pyra echoed, and Mikhail could here her verbally trying to get Malos to connect the dots that all of them were trying to work through right now. Or at least he and Pyra were; whether Haze even understood enough of their history together to work this out or if Rex had enough thoughts in his head to get it or not was another matter.

“Fifteen years is a long time, Mythra,” Malos said. Pyra blinked. “Things change. People die. People grow up - but apparently the kid who always trailed behind you is still there. What was his name? Milton?”

Mikhail didn’t know if Malos genuinely hadn’t known his name or hadn’t been able to tell which one was which or if he was just taunting Pyra, but either way it was working in making him and Pyra angry. And sad, which seemed to be the two emotions he was mixing far too frequently right now.

“Milton was Gormotti,” Mikhail said, knowing that this wouldn’t help the tense atmosphere at all. But he couldn’t just back down from Malos’ words. He had to respond, had to correct him. It was probably the least that Milton would have wanted.

“Ohhh, Indol really did a number on you then, didn’t they?” Malos asked with a sneer. Yeah, he’d known all along that Milton was the one who had died. How had he known that, unless…? Jin. Of course. So Jin must have told him. But that still begged the question of what had happened to Jin.

“They did, but not in the way you’re suggesting,” he said. Malos’ eyes drifted tellingly to Mikhail’s hidden core crystal; he knew what was there. Without a doubt, he knew exactly what was going on. And he could just sense that because of the ether. Rex had mentioned it too, which meant someone had told him, definitely Pyra, and Haze already knew. Not so much of a secret anymore, not like he was used to it being.

Malos met Mikhail’s eyes for a few moments and let out a sharp breath that could probably pass as a laugh. “You’re certainly a piece of work,” he said. “My driver really has been up to some interesting stuff.”

Mikhail just let out the most disgusted sound he could summon from his throat and looked away. He wanted something else to happen so he didn’t have to think about this anymore. He hated being scrutinised, hated being reminded of the past. And this whole thing was just a huge reminder that he really, really didn’t want.

It was that moment, of course, that Jin decided to start stirring. Malos was the first one to move, positioning himself right in front of Jin’s face. This was actually starting to get a bit weird and Mikhail needed an answer as to why Malos and Jin had been travelling together and why Malos actually seemed concerned for Jin. Before, Malos had worked alone, and the impression Mikhail had gained from the others was that he probably liked it that way.

“What’s going on?” Jin asked. His eyes whipped around the room, taking everything in, and definitely not liking what he saw. Because why would he? They were in a bad situation and there were probably people here that Jin had never wanted to see again, and definitely not in the way Haze was.

“No clue,” Malos said. “I woke up here, these fools decided to show up. No one knows what’s going on.”

“Noted,” Jin said, his eyes fixing on Rex almost immediately. “You’re her new driver,” he said. Rex nodded shakily, clearly looking very nervous. Honestly, Jin was very intimidating, even with the cloak wrapped around his chest haphazardly. “Why are you awake?” He asked, turning to Pyra. That meant Jin remembered. He remembered who Pyra was. Remembered that Addam was sending her to sleep somewhere. Which meant that he hadn’t returned to his core which meant…which meant. The ice block on the other side of the room.

“Addam entrusted me to Rex,” she said. “I’m not...not exactly pleased to be here. But we have a goal, and once this is over we’re going to get right back to it. But not before finding out exactly why you and Malos are here and what you’re doing.” Her voice had a sharpness to it that wasn’t even remotely similar to the way Jin and Mythra had talked to each other. This was different. Worse.

“We’re looking for something,” Jin said, and left it at that. His eyes skirted straight over Haze, his expression unreadable. Mikhail could imagine how much it hurt him to see her, not remembering, after all this time. It hurt him enough, and saw her a lot. And then Jin’s eyes moved to him, and there was a flash of recognition. “Mikhail.”

Mikhail bit his lip. He hadn’t seen Jin in years. Fifteen years. He’d thought that Jin was dead. He’d thought that the core crystal had somehow dropped into the cloud sea and no one would see it or him ever again. He’d thought it was fitting for the Paragon to die with Torna. He hadn’t wanted that to be the case, of course, but he’d also not wanted Jin to be taken up by someone else like Haze had been. Jin being controlled by Amalthus would have been awful because Jin had never had the endless warmth and kindness that Haze had by nature.

Jin as Amalthus’ blade would have been cold and hateful and distant and he never would have helped a small Mikhail who was lost and alone in the way that he’d been helped by Haze. But it was fine. Because that wasn’t the case. Because Jin remembered, somehow.

“Yeah,” he managed. “It’s me.”

“Have you been okay?” Jin asked. He definitely knew the answer to that one.

“Never better,” he lied. Then he sighed, because he was a terrible liar and just telling the truth from the first place would have looked better. Everyone could tell he was lying. “It was awful. Where were you?”

He wasn’t going to lie, now he knew that Jin was alive, that Jin had been alive all this time...he knew that Jin could have helped. Jin could have come to save him, come to save Haze. Could have thrust that sword right through Amalthus’ back and set everything right. How had Jin allowed Lora to die in the first place? How could that even have happened?

Jin looked sad at those words. He looked devastated. “I tried, Mikhail,” he said. “Ever since I was able to, I tried. But you can’t get onto Indol like this. It’s...you can’t. It was no easier for me to get on there than it was for you to get off, I imagine.”

“This is the first time I’ve been off Indol in fifteen years,” he said, and Architect did he hate that his life had somehow come to that. How had that even happened? How had he been a prisoner for so long? When he’d been that kid of nine years old, he’d always valued his freedom so highly, in those brief few weeks when he really had been free from all the terrible things that had come before.

“So you see,” Jin said. “Even if I’d tried, which I did, I wouldn’t have been able to make it. I was weak and lost for a long time. I’m sorry for anything that has happened to you.”

“Do you remember that man the night before everything went to shit?” He asked. Jin nodded, and Mikhail didn’t say anything else. He really wasn’t in the mood for any more talking right now. And maybe he was being a bit dramatic, sure, but he felt like he was at least a tiny bit entitled to that at this point.

“We need to work out what’s going on here,” Rex said, probably hoping to draw the conversation away from things he didn’t understand. “Any ideas, anyone?”

“Mikhail and I came here from Indol, you two from Leftheria, and these...two, from Gormott,” Haze said. “We’re all...linked. In some way. I won’t pretend I entirely understand how things in the past happened, but I know some.” She glanced at Mikhail. He must have told her about it, in the past. He just couldn’t remember doing that. Honestly, that was probably more concerning than Haze not knowing what was going on.

“Other than that, I haven’t got a clue,” Malos said. “But we can get moving and try and work it out. The door isn’t locked here, and I’m presuming yours wasn’t, either.” Rex shook his head. Malos glared at Haze and then Pyra with a thoughtful look on his face. “Temporary truce,” he said. “Because there’s no sense in all of us getting killed by something.”

Pyra nodded immediately. “I can’t let you run free once we’re out of this,” she said. “But I don’t think splitting up or fighting each other would be a good idea.” As she spoke, she shot a wary glance at Mikhail. Clearly, she couldn’t decide which side he’d be on. He couldn’t blame her, because he didn’t know either. He was on Haze’s side, maybe, but only if Haze would stop allowing Amalthus to walk all over everyone. He would be on Jin’s side, but Jin was on Malos’ side and he couldn’t be on his side, but if he wanted to oppose him then he’d be on Pyra’s side and that wasn’t an option.

Life was way more complicated than it should be. Mikhail sighed and headed towards the door, trying not to glance back at the frozen form of Lora. That was just eery. Maybe it could even be described as creepy. It was definitely wrong in some way. He just needed to keep going. At some point, they’d sort this mess out and he’d reach a point where he didn’t have to think about Lora’s frozen body existing in a block of ice for fifteen years.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, if you've enjoyed or not enjoyed what I wrote, or have any ideas as to where the heck this should go, please let me know! :)


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